Organised by the Public Procurement Office, as a part of the EU-funded PFM Facility project, a roundtable was held on the topic “Legal Protection in Public Procurement and Challenges in Practice.” The event brought together representatives of the Administrative Court and the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures alignment of domestic practice with European standards and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Participants agreed that, although the legislative framework in the Republic of Serbia is largely with EU law, the key challenge remains consistent and uniform application of regulations in practice. Particular emphasis was placed on the need for continuous monitoring and application of CJEU case law, as an important reference point for interpreting domestic regulations and strengthening legal certainty, especially in the context of Serbia’s EU accession process.
Special attention was devoted to the role of institutions within the the importance of their mutual cooperation in ensuring legal predictability, procedural efficiency, and trust among all participants in the public procurement system. In this context, it was highlighted that the exchange of practical experience and professional training is an important prerequisite for further improving the quality of decision-making and alignment with European standards.
The expert segment of the event focused on the analysis of selected CJEU judgments and their relevance for national practice, with particular attention to issues such as the exclusion of economic operators, the application of the self-cleaning mechanism, reliance on third-party capacities, subcontracting, contract modifications, and the protection of confidential information (trade secrets). It was that EU law does not allow automatic exclusion of bidders without the possibility of applying corrective measures, and that exceptions to general public procurement rules must be interpreted restrictively.
Participants agreed that CJEU case law has a strong impact on the development of the national public procurement system. The PFM Facility project team will continue to communicate with all stakeholders in the coming period to identify potential topics for future thematic roundtables, with the aim of further improving the legal protection system
The roundtable was organised within the EU-funded PFM Facility project, financed by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Centre of Excellence in Finance (CEF) and the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia.